Billy Joel once sang a song with the lyric “only the good die young.”

He was mistaken. We all have known that. The good do live long as well.

Eddie Melin wasn’t just good. He was great. A great man and a giant among giants in the community he loved with all his heart.

Eddie died today at the tender age of 102.

My heart is shattered into a million pieces.

http://amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2015-04-16/arts-giant-eddie-melin-dies-102#comment-214003

I’ve known Eddie for 20 years, dating back to the time I joined the Rotary Club of Amarillo, of which Eddie was a member. He and I formed an instant friendship.

Over the years I learned a lot about Eddie Melin. I learned about his devotion to music, of his effort to help revive the Amarillo Symphony, of his love of Amarillo — even though he, like many of us, was a transplant. I learned of his devotion to his late wife, Olive. I learned of his impeccable sense of humor.

The year I was selected as president of the Rotary Club of Amarillo — a post Eddie held in the 1950s — I bestowed Eddie with the title “Last Word Melin.” I would defy anyone to try to get the last word on Eddie in a battle quips. If you tried, you were guaranteed to lose.

He was awarded a lifetime season ticket at the Amarillo Symphony, which was the organization’s way of thanking him for all he had done to breathe life into the symphony many years earlier. “The only reason they gave this to me,” Eddie would joke, “is because they didn’t think I’d live this long.”

As the story written by the AGN’s Chip Chandler notes, Eddie stood barely 5 feet tall.

That didn’t matter. He was a titan in this community.

It is said often about community leaders that those they leave behind will miss them.

Well, that cliché does not begin to explain the impact that Eddie Melin had on those who knew him and loved him.

I loved that man.